^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
16 DEC 03: PROFILE SHOTS
About 300 people gathered outside the Government Center Monday, demanding changes in the wake of the shooting of Kenneth Walker. Muscogee County Sheriff Ralph Johnson says he was NOT invited to the event -- which shows he isn't watching TV news, because it was publicized as open to the public for days.
State Rep. Calvin Smyre told the crowd the killing of Kenneth Walker by an unnamed sheriff's deputy has put "a dark cloud" over Columbus. Shame on all of you who blamed the dreary weekend weather on the TV meteorologists.
Pastor Wayne Baker of the "Spirit-Filled Church" complained Saddam Hussein is being treated better in Iraq than Kenneth Walker was on Interstate 185 last week. At last he's found common ground with Columbus "good ol' boys" - because many of them wanted Saddam Hussein shot on sight, too.
Pastor Wayne Baker called for an end to "evil tactics of searches and seizure, which violate civil rights and human rights." Keep that quote in mind, if you plan to protest your taxes next April....
Edward Dubose of the NAACP urged the crowd to take action, in response to last week's shooting - for instance, by becoming registered to vote. That sounds nice, but hold on a minute. Didn't Sheriff Ralph Johnson run unopposed in the last election?
A main complaint at the Government Center rally was that law officers use "racial profiling" in pulling over possible suspects. Of course, this problem exists throughout our society. Each February, the African-American History Month profiles hardly ever mention people of other races.
WRBL reported speakers at the Government Center rally called for Sheriff Ralph Johnson to "step aside." Hasn't he already done that? He's passed the shooting investigation over to the G.B.I....
The Government Center rally reportedly also brought calls for a grand jury investigation of the Kenneth Walker shooting. This seems a little strange - because the names of grand jurors are kept as secret as that deputy who opened fire.
From the TV coverage I saw, only a few white people attended the Government Center rally. Perhaps many white business owners downtown spent their lunch hours buying security systems -- just in case....
Later in the day, Pastor William Howell of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition called his own news conference at a church. He said he's trying to get Jesse Jackson to come to Columbus. Of course, Jackson's wife has been scheduling his trips for the last couple of years - and traveling with him at every opportunity (ahem).
William Howell of Rainbow/PUSH demanded the deputy sheriff who shot Kenneth Walker be removed from duty. And he wondered why the deputy's name still has not been released. We're glad to see Pastor Howell finally got around to reading this blog, after about four days....
The demands of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition include "sensitivity training" for Muscogee County law officers. This really should be a two-way process. So to all blog readers, we ask -- please, no more doughnut jokes.
So who's speaking for the other side in the Kenneth Walker case? Jerry Laquire tried to do that on his TV-16 talk show "Final Edition" Monday night -- accusing Rep. Calvin Smyre of promoting "disunity in the community." So it's HIS fault? Somehow I doubt Mr. Smyre fired that gun....
Jerry Laquire told TV-16 viewers there are TWO victims from last week's incident on I-185: shooting victim Kenneth Walker, and the Sheriff's Deputy who fired the shot. Maybe so - but I don't think Laquire would use that sort of logic when it comes to Timothy McVeigh.
TV reports Monday night revealed only a slight bit more about the deputy who shot Kenneth Walker. Now we're told he's part of a Muscogee County SWAT team. If only the deputy had swatted Walker, instead of shooting....
LAUGHLINE RERUN:If you don't think racial profiling is done by all people groups, you should have been with us
about two years ago. We attended a Martin Luther King Day service at Three Arts Theater - and here's how we reported the end of that event, in the LaughLine of 22 Jan 02:
We talked briefly with an African-American woman as we left the M-L-K Day service. She told us she used to live in town, but moved awhile back. Then she said: "So are you a City Councilman or something?"
"No, I'm not."
"Oh. Nice meeting you...." The woman stepped away to talk with someone else. Truly racial profiling IS a universal problem.
BLOG UPDATE: Remember the 40 minutes my new atomic clock gained early Saturday? [13 Dec] When I woke up Monday morning, the clock's time was accurate again -- so maybe those 40 minutes simply were visiting for the weekend.
The instructions for the atomic clock note disruptions can occur due to "bad weather locally, or electrical storms between you and Colorado." This sounds like a sneaky way to get me to watch national maps on The Weather Channel....